Ghost of Stephen Foster

The Backyard

The patio officially opens at the Backyard Alehouse on Linden Street in Scranton Friday (5/29) afternoon. We'll be there from 5 to 7PM broadcasting live, as if that were a draw. I mean, it's a friggin' ALEHOUSE. Naturally it's about the beer, we're just the sideshow. Frankly I'd be checking it out at some point even if they weren't paying me to be there. (It's good to be on the radio.)

Also if you're a Twitterholic, there just coincidentally happens to be NEPA Tweetup 4.0 happening at the same time! What's a NEPA Tweetup? Northeast Pennsylvania folks on Twitter take the virtual how-do-you-do's into the space-time continuum on occasion and actually get together in the flesh to socialize and click out a few phone Tweets while they do.

Draft and bottled, something like 200 beers in stock? Pfft! The Backyard Alehouse is on Linden Street.

Wait, It Sucks? I Thought...

Rock107's Stefan and Kristen Brooks Too!

Rock107's foreign exchange student intern from the Balkans Stefan has a band! That's right! And no, it's not him and some goatherds from his village banging on gourds and chanting in an unrecognizable language. It's a real band. They're called Losing Caufield and this Friday night you can kill two birds with one stone.

1) You can go and see Stefan and Losing Caufield at the 20th Ward Social Club which is at 2028 Pittston Avenue in Scranton and...

2) You can do your good deed and help the Lions Club raise some money for the Association for the Blind.

Stefan and his band with the help of Rock107's own Kristen Brooks (her dad is a Lions Club member) are asking for a mere five dollars if you care to donate for an excellent and entertaining evening. Starts at 7pm, goes to 10, and it's all ages.

Maybe you've heard Losing Caufield already but if you haven't, click HERE for a sample...

...and go to the 20th Ward Social Club, Friday night, May 22nd. A great way to start the evening and an easy way to do your part to help the visually impaired. Hats off to Losing Caufield and the Lions Club too!

(Disclaimer: The words "foreign exchange student intern from the Balkans" are used here for dramatic purposes and if it turns out Stefan is really from West Side well hey, it's radio ya know?)

So How Was Your Weekend?

Jerry the Neighbor who lives a short stroll through my backyard and just across Moon Road was on the show this morning for something we plan to do every Monday called "So How Was Your Weekend?"

Maybe you've heard us chat with Jerry the Neighbor before. He's been on more than a few times and isn't shy when a microphone shows up. So we thought it's high time we put that attribute of his to use on a regular basis.

Jerry talked about trying to fix a faucet in his bathroom a while ago and the damage he caused, about the faucet in his kitchen that he tried to fix just last week...and the damage he caused, and about the highlight of his weekend...which, if you haven't heard it yet, I won't spoil the surprise. But to hear about it for yourself (and to hear about his thing for Ruthie!) click HERE!

Time Flies

I don't think this is the first post on this blog I've called "Time Flies".

This is my daughter Emily (who turns 18 next Friday) and her boyfriend Billy. Tonight is the Lakeland High School prom.

Isn't she beautiful?!


My plan was to go with them but Karen talked me out of it. I guess I'll just hide in the parking lot and follow them.

Vacation

Couldn't go a whole week while I'm on vacation without posting something here.

Vacation is going well. It always does. I'm Mr. Vacation. Big fan of vacation. As close as my job actually is to being ON vacation, if I could get paid for this, this would be better.

Scheduled to return Monday unless something happens between now and then. Next vacation the end of June. After that, middle of August.

Star Trek

If you're a Star Trek fan you'll like the movie and if you've never heard of Star Trek you'll like the movie too.

Karen and I went to the Thursday 8PM show and in a theater of about 500 seats there were no more than 20 people. I like an empty theater a lot and I think maybe not a lot of moviegoers realized they could catch Star Trek on Thursday night since all the publicity says it opens May 8th.

Anyway, great movie! I was originally a little leery about Chris Pine as Kirk but he did a good job. Zachary Quinto as Spock, excellent. And Karl Urban NAILED Bones!

I don't think I'm the only one guessing it'll be THE box office draw this weekend. Go see Star Trek.

I'll Let You Know

Karen and I are going to "Star Trek" tonight. This might be a mistake. I mean there's a potential for crowds and I really don't love crowds. But there are seven screenings tonight so with any luck at all it won't be unbearable.

Anyway, I'm not a Trekkie but I have been waiting to see what they've done with this and Zachary Quinto from "Heroes" does look just like Spock. In fact I think he and Leonard Nimoy have a scene together.

I'll let you know how it was Friday morning on the radio.

No Matter What

Had a Blast

The Scranton Cultural Center's "The View with a Scranton Attitude", the guys version was an outstanding evening and a huge success last night. Lots of laughs, lots. One fast hour and a half. Shopland Hall can seat 600, there were about 420 tickets "sold" (okay, they were free) so we had a nice crowd. (Above, the soundcheck.)

Everyone on the panel was excellent, not that you'd expect less. John Cosgrove from Condron and Company, Kevin Lynn from WILK, Colin "Dangerboy" Joyce (who started the evening in an orange hazmat suit) from Dan Simrell Advertising, and Bob Reynolds of WNEP each got their share of laughs and offered some insightful responses as well to questions gathered from the audience during the pre-show reception and posed by Laurie Cadden who acted as host for the evening.

I didn't bring a camera, just snapped a few quick shots with my phone which I posted on Twitter. Unfortunately the stage lights prevented any decent pictures of the audience. Oh well.

Thanks especially to Ruth Miller and Mark Hoover from the radio station who were in attendance. Appreciate you both being there.

Suffice it to say it was a great evening and though I understand it was the third of three such events planned, if they do another one and I get invited again, I'll be there in a heartbeat. And a word of advice, if they DO do it again and you missed this one, well that's okay. If you miss the next one, duh.